Caserta is set to become the new industrial hub for batteries and lithium-ion cells. In Teverola, on the former site of the Indesit plant belonging to the Whirlpool group, everything is ready for the inauguration of a facility that will be among the first in Europe dedicated to the industrial sector, energy storage and the transport world. The project bears the signature of Italian group Seri Industrial, which in 2019 launched the process of converting the industrial site with an overall investment of 54 million euros; with an initial installed capacity of around 300 megawatts, the facility will also support the development of innovative and sustainable technologies for lithium-ion batteries — cleaner, faster to charge and longer-lasting than those commonly used today.

From research to recycling: the focus is on lithium-ion batteries

The ambitious plan involves two steps. The first — at the facility known as Teverola 1 — is to create an integrated supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, from research to recycling: raw materials will be extracted and processed, battery cells and modules will be designed, and their integration into smart systems will be conceived, alongside studies on recycling and the second life of end-of-life batteries. A second facility (Teverola 2), with a capacity of 2.5 gigawatt-hours at full capacity dedicated solely to the production of accumulators for electric cars and their recycling, is planned by 2026: these will be "highly innovative" batteries, as Marco Civitillo, a member of the founding family of the group established in 1999, underlined.

New professional opportunities for 75 former Whirlpool employees

Seri Industrial is an Italian group active in the production of electrical energy storage units and plastics processing, and owner of the Faam brand. Acquired eight years ago, Faam has always focused on accumulators for the industrial sector (from forklifts to railways) and in 2008 supplied the electric vehicles and batteries used during the Beijing Olympics. In addition to the significant investment in terms of innovation in one of the key components of the cars of the future, there is also an important employment dimension: 75 former Whirlpool employees, retrained within the Seri group, will work at the Teverola plant. As Civitillo explained, "today there is no real know-how in this sector. The entire project has an added value, which is the training of professionals that do not currently exist or are very scarce, whether workers, researchers or engineers."